Chapter 78

Tirpitz grunted, his voice full of resentment and unwillingness, saying, "According to my original plan, I intended to replace all 13 of these old ships within seven years. Therefore, the implementation of this naval law must be supported by sufficient financial resources. Schillingfeste, that old man, had already agreed to the amount I required a month ago, but this afternoon he suddenly changed his mind! In the next seven years, this guy will squeeze 35 million marks from the naval budget each year; over seven years, that's nearly 250 million marks! This money could build 12 battleships with a displacement of 13,000 tons, or pay the salaries of 50,000 naval officers for 10 years!"

Schillingfeste? Qing Ying was slightly taken aback when he heard Tirpitz mention this name with a tone of anger, and an image of a thin, old face immediately came to mind. As the successor to former Chancellor Caprivi, Schillingfeste had played the role of cleaning up after Wilhelm for six years. Whenever the emperor's impulsive actions caused negative effects, Schillingfeste would quietly handle the aftermath. It was unexpected that such a low-profile person would actually refuse Tirpitz, who, with his talent and thick beard, was almost the most favored figure in the military today!

"Mr. Alfred, have you offended the Chancellor recently? Since he took office, he has been quite generous with the military's budget. This year, he even allocated 54 million marks specifically for the construction of cruisers for the navy! He must have some other plans for this money, right?" Qing Ying asked doubtfully.

Tirpitz was momentarily speechless, his expression changing, and finally settled into a look of helplessness. He sighed, "Your Highness, you are absolutely right. This guy wants to use this money to build the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal." Qing Ying was surprised, "Didn't this canal open in June this year? On the day it opened, my father even took a fast cruiser from the westernmost point to the easternmost point, Holtenau, and held a grand opening ceremony. If not for that, it wouldn't be called the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal!"

Seeing Qing Ying look at him with even more confusion, Tirpitz immediately realized there was a flaw in his words. He waved his hand slightly, apologizing, "Not build, but widen it again. If we don't do this, the canal will be of no use to the German Imperial Navy's main battleships." He then explained the entire situation to Qing Ying in detail.

---

Since the 1880s, with the development of the economy, Germany's maritime shipping has gradually flourished. At that time, Germany had a vast outlet to the Baltic Sea, with tens of thousands of tons of goods needing to be transported daily. Ships entering and leaving the Baltic Sea had to take a large detour, sailing north along the Danish peninsula into the North Sea, which was very inconvenient. Besides merchant ships, the small-scale movements of German warships also required them to detour around the Danish peninsula. If Germany entered a war with another country and needed to mobilize warships, they would have to rely on Denmark's goodwill, as most of the intervening waters did not belong to Germany. This lack of control over the naval lifeline was indeed unsettling. Therefore, Germany decided to build an inland canal from the mouth of the Elbe River in the west to Kiel Bay in the east, connecting the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. This would not only boost the economic development of the Baltic Sea coast but also ensure the absolute safety of German naval warships during wartime.

During the reign of Wilhelm I, the German Navy had no large ships. Moreover, the merchant ships and liners of that time were relatively small, so the canal was not designed to be very large. The cross-section of the canal was an inverted trapezoid: although the water surface width was large, reaching 56.7 meters, the bottom width was only 22 meters. Additionally, the height of the trapezoid was only 9 meters, meaning the maximum depth of the canal was 9 meters, greatly limiting its navigational capacity.

Historically, this canal could barely accommodate the German Navy's pre-dreadnoughts and armored cruisers, but it was insufficient for the dreadnoughts built in the dreadnought era. Under strong demands from the German Navy, the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal began a major expansion in 1907 and was completed in June 1914. After the expansion, the canal's water surface width was 102.5 meters, the bottom width was 44 meters, and the depth was 11 meters, allowing all dreadnoughts to pass smoothly with plenty of room to spare. The reason the Germans only started expanding the canal in 1907 was that the pre-dreadnoughts built in the pre-dreadnought era were not very large, and the Kiel Canal could still meet the Navy's needs. The last pre-dreadnought, the Deutschland class, which began construction in 1904, had a width of only 22.2 meters and a draft of 8.23 meters, allowing it to pass through the canal safely.

However, in this alternate timeline, the situation was entirely different. Due to Qing Ying's theory of "appropriate large-scale warship design," the German Navy had early on embarked on a path of increasing tonnage and balanced performance, resulting in a significant leap in warship tonnage. The new battleship that began construction in 1894 had a design displacement of 13,200 tons, reaching a level comparable to the historical "Deutschland" class, which only began construction in 1904! This time, Germany started building battleships with a displacement of over 13,000 tons a decade earlier, making the Kiel Canal insufficient. The new battleship had a width of 23 meters and a full load draft of nearly 8.4 meters. If it were any larger, the canal would almost be unable to accommodate it. Given the current trend in the development of German Navy battleships, who could guarantee that the next class of battleships would not exceed the size limit?

"The widening of the canal will not only allow the empire's battleships to travel smoothly between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea but also significantly boost shipping and the economy due to improved navigational capacity. Therefore, I proposed the re-expansion of the canal this afternoon. To avoid the canal facing the need for widening immediately after its completion, I suggested widening it to meet all future needs for the next thirty years," Tirpitz said calmly, with a hint of extreme resentment in his voice. "This is a basic project that benefits both the military and the government, but Schillingfeste, that old man, said it is an additional budget specifically for the Navy and wants to use the Navy's budget to build it! 250 million marks, just like that!"

Hearing this, Qing Ying finally understood the whole situation. Looking at Tirpitz's slightly greenish face, Qing Ying was inwardly elated and excited. The reason for his excitement was that, as a穿越者 (穿越者 means "time traveler" or "穿越者" in this context, but it's better to use "穿越者" to maintain the original flavor), he was well aware of the shortcomings of pre-dreadnoughts.

In 1906, the launch of the HMS Dreadnought rendered all pre-dreadnoughts, except for the semi-dreadnoughts, obsolete. Compared to the Dreadnought's eight 12-inch guns and a speed of 21 knots, the pre-dreadnoughts' four 12-inch guns and 18 knots were like garbage. For the peak confrontation between Britain and Germany in 20 years, pre-dreadnoughts would be almost useless. Therefore, Qing Ying had always wanted to find a way to reduce the 24 pre-dreadnoughts in the historical German fleet and allocate more funds to dreadnoughts. He never expected that this goal would be achieved due to the butterfly effect caused by his proposal for larger warships to improve the German Navy's performance two years ago!

Due to the larger design of German warships, the insufficient navigational capacity of the Kiel Canal became apparent 10 years earlier. For the sake of national security, Germany had to widen the canal during the pre-dreadnought era. This time, Schillingfeste was so cooperative, using the Navy's budget to expand the canal, which would significantly slow down the rate of building pre-dreadnoughts, aligning perfectly with Qing Ying's goal of reducing the pre-dreadnought fleet! The sudden happiness left Qing Ying somewhat unprepared. He secretly rejoiced for a while before feigning a mournful expression and asked, "Why does the Chancellor want to use the Navy's budget to fund the canal expansion?"

Tirpitz snorted, "Isn't it for his political achievements? He said the canal took eight years to build and only officially opened this year. Now he wants to use it to boost shipping along the Baltic Sea coast and promote the economy. The Navy's need to widen the canal just after it opened is something he cannot accept. He said if it must be expanded, the Navy must bear the full cost! Your Highness, listen to this absurd logic. The extensive railway network within the empire was initially built to quickly mobilize and assemble the Army. If we follow his logic, wouldn't the billions of marks have to be deducted from the Army's budget?"

"Has Father agreed to this? Given his love for the Navy, he wouldn't want to see this happen, right?" Qing Ying asked cautiously, still somewhat uneasy.

Tirpitz said calmly, "To prevent the Emperor from intervening, the Chancellor, like a magician, produced a detailed budget for next year within two hours and presented it to the Emperor. In that report, the billions of marks in annual revenue for Germany were allocated to various construction projects, arranged meticulously and fully. Even the Emperor couldn't find a single flaw." Saying this, Tirpitz rubbed his head in pain, somewhat anxious, "I don't know what's going on. The Chancellor clearly hasn't given his all and could easily squeeze out the funds for the canal expansion, yet the Emperor agreed to his budget for next year. Even though the Army's budget is nearly 600 million marks this year, the Treasury is still full of gold coins!"

PS: The number of favorites hasn't increased much in the past two days, and the author is very sad... If you have any suggestions for the plot, feel free to leave a comment in the review section.

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